You’re now familiar with what a keto diet is and how ketosis affects your body. You’ve established why you want to go keto (e.g.. weight loss, help in treating a specific health condition, or enhanced physical performance). And you’ve solved the mystery of macro calculation.

So now you’re ready to dive right into the keto diet, right? Well, not so fast. Slow down a bit.

You’re not going to just jump into a lake without knowing something about the depth of the water or its temperature. So it is with the keto diet. Even after knowing what your daily macronutrients should be, there are still several other important things about the Keto diet that you need to know.

You might have heard some of the horror stories from people who’ve tried keto. Some report that they experienced the dreaded “keto flu”. Others complain that their strength training suffered horribly, some are hungry all the time, and others complain that they just can’t find good keto recipes.

In this post, I’ll show you how Barbara and I avoided most of the problems associated with the ketogenic diet and how we quickly corrected a very annoying unexpected problem. [Read more…]

In this fourth post in our series Our Ketogenic Diet Journey, I’ll give you a behind the curtains peek at how Barbara and I configured our ketogenic diet.

The keto diet with its amazing health benefits is finally becoming mainstream. More and more people are turning to the diet as an effective weight loss strategy and as an important means to help in the management of a variety of health problems.

However, a common criticism of the diet is that it’s extremely hard to configure and follow. I read on forums all the time people asking questions like: how many carbs can I eat? What should my maximum protein intake be? I’m eating a high-fat diet so why am I not losing weight?

People want to follow the diet. And they want the health benefits it confers, but they think it’s too complicated to follow and get right. But it doesn’t have to be. In this post, I’ll show you why. [Read more…]

This is part 3 of our series Our Keto Journey. In our last post, Barbara highlighted how a ketogenic diet helped her shed fat and is helping her guard against Alzheimer’s Disease. However, as I mentioned in this post here, not everyone goes keto for the same reasons. Remember, a keto diet is high in healthy fat, moderate in protein, and very low in carbs (<30 net grams /day).

In my case, I wasn’t overweight, but I did have a metabolically dangerous visceral fat issue that required I go keto. Also, since the keto diet has potent anti-inflammatory effects, I wanted to see if it was possible for the diet to get me over the last hurdle of recovering from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).

Let’s first take a look at my use of a ketogenic diet for my fat problem.

A recent report found that the obesity epidemic in the United States is continuing to grow to unhealthy proportions. This means that tens of millions of Americans will continue to be at a high risk for diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, Alzheimer’s disease, and many types of cancer.

But did you know that there are millions of individuals who don’t look obese, who are technically not overweight, but who are metabolically obese? [Read more…]

In the first post in this series, John presented a 5,000-foot view of what a ketogenic diet looks like. If you’re completely unfamiliar with a keto diet, we suggest you read that post first. In this post today, I’ll share why I went keto. In the next post, John will be sharing his story.

The important takeaway in these next two posts is that not everyone goes on a keto diet for the same reasons. Some go on it to treat a specific illness while some go on it because it may have the potential to prevent certain diseases. Others go on it because they want to lose a lot of weight quickly, some believe it’s a healthy way of eating, and others are seeking enhanced sports performance.

Let me tell you why I decided to go keto and why you may want to consider it too. [Read more…]

Barbara and I have been on a ketogenic diet for about eight months, and we’re absolutely amazed at the results. So far, I’ve lost 4 inches off my waist, I’m full of energy and I haven’t lost any muscle mass or strength. Barbara is also experiencing excellent results.

Now throw into the mix that we’re never hungry and it sounds like the perfect diet, doesn’t it? Well, no diet is perfect because we are all individuals with different needs. But if you need to lose weight, want to heal from a particular illness, or are an athlete looking to fuel your body in a more efficient way, the keto diet might be for you.

Barbara and I have similar but also different reasons for going “keto”. In this series of posts, I’ll tell you why we’re following a keto diet and how we’re doing it.[Read more…]

This week I watched another stellar (pun intended) episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG). I’m still new to TNG so most of these episodes are first timers for me.

Once again, I was stunned by the willingness of the writers to delve into questions that probe the very basics of humanity and morality. That’s something few movies or shows attempt to do today.

This particular episode (The Quality of Life), examined two important philosophical questions: how do we define life and is all life equally valuable? It may seem that these questions are better left to be discussed in the halls of academia. However, how you answer them can have crucial consequences in the real world.

Throughout history, the way societies have answered these questions have influenced views on slavery, civil rights, the equality of genders, and whether you’re pro-life or pro-choice.

Bravo to TNG for raising these questions for consideration. However, the way in which they answered them raises more questions than even they were prepared to deal with.

What is life and are all lives equally valuable? TNG answered both incorrectly. Let’s take a look.[Read more…]

On my journey from theStandard American Diet to my presentketogenic diet, I went through several diet phases. In order, these consisted of a gluten-free diet, intensive juicing, paleo, low-carb healthy-fat diet (LCHF), and finally a very low-carb ketogenic diet.

While moving through each phase, I became progressively healthier. Thus, experience told me that the diets were helping to heal the chronic fatigue syndrome and inflammation that had plagued my body for nearly 30 years.

As I became more familiar with the science behind an LCHF diet, the more I realized that it was a metabolically superior diet. The hours I spent studying the research done by brilliant scientists like Phinney, Volek, D’Agostino, Rosedale, and Feinman have convinced me that the empirical data confirms that an LCHF diet is the healthiest diet not only for me but also for millions of others.

However, I’m dismayed when good scientists appeal to non-empirical evidence for the diet’s efficacy.

Many if not most LCHF experts continually rely on macroevolution as a reason for the success of an LCHF diet. “It’s the way we were evolved to eat,” they say.

I disagree. Evolution had nothing to do with the way we eat because macroevolution doesn’t exist. And it’s time good scientists stop appealing to bad science to strengthen their theories.

In this post, I’ll show how many LCHF scientists use evolution to bolster their argument for an LCHF diet and why it’s bad science to do so. Then I’ll reveal one of the dirty little secrets evolutionists don’t want you to know. This secret should destroy anyone’s faith in evolution.

You’ve come to that place in life where you can finally start to think about living the dream.

But then you start to notice little things about yourself. You’re a little (I’m being kind here) larger around the waist.

And you’re not really comfortable in a bathing suit because of your moobs and all.

You can’t bound up a flight of steps like you once did. And you hope none of your friends asks you to help him move because you know your back won’t stand the strain.

Then the reality of mortality really sets in. You visit your doctor, and he says to you, “Your cholesterol and blood pressure are a little high.” And, then he drops the final hammer, “Your blood sugar is high as well.

He doesn’t give you any medicine this time, but he tells you that if you don’t lose weight and your numbers don’t come down, he’ll have to give you a prescription for ___________ (you fill in the blank) at your next visit.

What do you do? If you gain weight or even keep the status quo, you’ll probably end up on a statin, BP meds, or a diabetes med for the rest of your life. And, remember, those meds don’t come without some adverse reactions.

And even if those meds reduce some symptoms, chronic disease will eventually take its toll.

Fortunately, you can pursue another course of action.

You can take control of your health and in the process transform that dreadful dad bod into a lean, metabolically healthy machine, similar to the one you had years ago or (if you’re like me) into one you never had.[Read more…]

Now here was my specific problem. The excess fat I was carrying around posed a significant health risk.

Even though I wasn’t terribly overweight my waist was approaching obese territory. And it was out of proportion to my legs and hips. Also, I was carrying around a disproportionate amount of fat to muscle.

This is called a skinny-fat body type and is considered by health professionals to be metabolically unhealthy.

With that in mind, my goal now was not only to continue to get stronger but also to become leaner and healthier.

In part 1 of this series, I’ll discuss the problems associated with a high waist measurement and excess body fat.

In part two I’ll explain how I was able to increase my strength and lose body fat and significant inches off my waist.

Hi! I’m John. Welcome to the Progressing Pilgrim. I’m 60 years young and I’ve created this blog to share the health, fitness and spiritual strategies that have turned my life around. If you’re looking to become a healthier (physically and spiritually) version of yourself you’ve come to the right place. Eat Well. Lift Heavy. Soli Deo Gloria! Read more…

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